Ajna - The Vision Center

Chakra 6, located at the level of the forehead, is also known as the third eye. A lotus with only two petals, it is visualized as a deep indigo blue. This is the center of visual, psychic and intuitive perception—the place where we store our memories, perceive our dreams, and imagine our future.

Its name, Ajna, means both "to perceive" and "to command." Just as words are used to shape our world, so do the images we hold in our minds influence the events of our lives. What we perceive and remember is also what we command. A visualization held strongly is the first step in bringing an ethereal thought-form into manifestation.

Its element is light, a higher, faster vibration than that of sound, the least dense and most versatile of any element we have encountered thus far. Traveling at speeds beyond comprehension, communicating across distances events that may have ceased to exist millenia ago, light in all its splendor allows us to perceive the world in an infinite display of pattern. And when we view the world, we must remember that it is not objects we see but reflected light.

The Ajna chakra relates to the pineal gland, a vestigial light sensitive organ located in the exact geometric center of the head. In the embryo, the pineal begins as an actual third eye and later degenerates. It has been demonstrated that the pineal gland is sensitive to light, even when optical nerves have been cut. However, the functioning of the pineal in the mature adult is still a mystery. It is believed by some to play a part in producing the internal visions that sometimes come with meditative states. Chakra 6 is our intuitive level, bringing us information through internally experienced visual imagery. Dreams are the clearest example of this. Clairvoyant sight is the ultimate example—the product of an open and functioning Ajna chakra. The purpose of this center is to become aware of the images inside our minds—the ones we perceive and the ones we create—so that this vast visual screen can be used consciously to call images at will and bring us information unavailable through other means.

Those who are open on this level are aware of their perceptions and can interpret them usefully. If the chakra is closed down, we may experience eye trouble, headaches, or troubling dreams. If the chakra is too open without solid ground to back it up, one may experience hallucinations, confusion from too much input, or over-interpretation of everyday occurrences.

It is my firm belief that psychic perception is something that everyone has and uses profusely, whether or not they are aware of it. It is important to validate these subtle psychic perceptions that float through our minds each day.

Opening psychic perception is largely a function of learning to recognize patterns and creating an internal visual language with which to interpret them. If you see someone has done something in the past, chances are likely it will happen again. As we climb higher into the upper chakras, we approach a sense of divine order, and perception of that order allows us easily and accurately to "fill in the blanks" and perceive, like light waves, that which is actually at a distance, spatially and temporally.

Outside of our own imaginations, the images that surround and rule us are a major factor in mass consciousness. Television, billboards, clothing trends, cinematography, and other visual media feed into our consciousness on an immediate and whole brain level. To clear the chakra, we must get away from the images of what we expect to see and begin to experience the world with the freshness of a child. Only then can our organ of psychic perception begin to see accurately. And when we do, we discover an exciting world of patterns and colors unlike anything in the physical realm.

Each of the chakras is related to a color, and though the system has changed from the ancient Tantrics to modern associations, the most popular pattern is the rainbow spectrum. Red light has the longest and slowest wavelength, so it is associated with chakra 1, and the chakras proceed in rainbow order to the violet at the crown.

A good exercise to develop the visualization capacity of your third eye, while simultaneously helping to balance all your chakras, is to focus on each one of your chakras, filling that part of your body with the appropriate color of light. Begin at the top or the bottom, but proceed in order, and take time with each chakra to fully feel the effects.

Ah, the ego! That little voice that constantly talks to you in the back of your mind. The all-too-familiar, endless dialogue that taunts and teases you. It can be the withering sub-text of an argument or the moral boosting rant of how you are better than all that.
Yet, at the end of the day, as you lie in bed tossing and turning listening to the... read this article